


We're Alive

by orphan_account



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, New York City, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Pre-Iron Man 1, Tags May Change, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-05
Updated: 2018-07-05
Packaged: 2019-06-05 16:53:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,495
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15175148
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Peter gets sent back in time to 2007, in a world where everything is the same except for one thing.He doesn't exist.





	1. Everything is Temporary

It was cold. So, so cold. Why? Peter looked down at his pale hands, eyes running over the bony joints and blue veins before reality hit him. Where was he? Where was his suit? He got to his feet clumsily from the pile of snow that he was sitting in - that explains the cold. He looked down again at himself, he was shirtless and wearing only a pair of faded, baggy blue jeans and some dirty white sneakers. What the fuck was going on? Was this some kind of simulation, or a dream maybe? Whatever it was, he needed to get out of here. Peter scanned his surroundings only to realise exactly where he was. He was in the corner of central park. It was dark, so he assumed it had to be nighttime unless his senses were acting up again. But why was there snow? It was summer. This wasn't right at _all_.

There was a painful ringing in his ears that he only just noticed, and his fingers were turning blue as he tried to step out onto the street only to trip over his laces and scrape his chin on the concrete. A couple walked past, wearing vintage clothes and holding hands as their breathed fogged up the icy air. They looked down at him and mouthed something with a sneer as they walked past, but the incessant ringing in his ears blocked out their words as he scrambled back to his feet. He had to find Mister Stark or really _anyone_ he knew.

Was it time travel? Peter thought to himself as he forced his legs to move down the snowy street. It was freezing, and the lack of a shirt certainly wasn't doing him any favours. And, oh god, he was so tired. He'd never been this tired before. But he couldn't stop moving, not now. He made it to a crosswalk and checked to see if any cars were coming, and there wasn't. He slowly started to walk across the street when the unmistakable sound of an engine came piercing through the ringing and it was growing closer. His spider-sense started screaming at him to move, web away, get to safety. But he didn't have his suit or his web-shooters.

By the time he had turned to face the direction of the noise, it was too late. He felt his body go flying and skid across the concrete, his muscles aching in pain as yelled out hoarsely in shock before blackness covered his vision and he fell into a dreamless sleep.

//

Peter woke up with a jolt, his eyes shooting open and squinting in the harsh light. Was he dead? No, that's ridiculous... is it, though? His eyes slowly adjusted to the light as he peered curiously around at the room he was in. It was plain white, everything so clean and it smelled harshly of cleaning chemicals. His eyes watered as he opened them fully. It looked like a hospital, maybe. Guess he wasn't dead then.

"Hello?" His throat was dry, and he ran his tongue over his lips. They were cracked and sore, as was the rest of him. He groaned at the lack of response and tried to stand up. He managed to get halfway standing before his left leg gave out underneath him and he hissed in pain as he stumbled into a cabinet. He barely made it two steps before a tall man ran through the door and grabbed him by the shoulders.

"Woah! Hey, kid. Nice to see you're awake." The voice was familiar. Where had he heard it? Peter craned his neck up and his muscled screamed in anger at the movement. His brown eyes met another set of brown as he studied the face of the taller man.

"Mis-Mister Stark?" He croaked in disbelief. Mister Stark found him! He could go home now, thank god. "What happened?'

"I hit you with my car, uh- sorry about that, by the way." Something was wrong. He looked younger, and Peter warily put his hand on the centre of the older man's chest. No arc reactor. He felt his heart drop into his stomach. What the hell? What was happening?! His thoughts raced through his head a mile a minute as he felt his chest tighten.

"Hey, kid? Calm down. It's okay, erm- just breathe. Get back in bed, you're not supposed to be up yet."

Peter nodded slowly, shuffling back into the bed as he tried to control his breathing. Why didn't he have his arc reactor? Was this really a dream, after all? Had he gotten surgery to remove the shrapnel? But he said that wasn't possible, did he make it possible, then?

"So kid, tell me your name and I'll call your parents, yeah?" He snapped out of his thoughts and looked over at the other man in the room, who was holding a fairly old model of the Starkphone. Peter studied his face to see if he was joking, but after a few seconds, he realised that unfortunately, he wasn't joking at all.

"Mister Stark- I don't mean to be rude but... you're joking, right?" Peter stumbled over his words, watching Tony's face morph from a kind one to a confused one.

"Why would I be joking?"

"You- You know me! And you know May's number, and she knows that I was on patrol so she would know if I went back with you to the compound since you- you hit me with your car apparently? Which is weird because, well, normally Happy drives you everywhere. And he's not that bad at driving." 

"Alright. Can you repeat that in English or at least say it so I can understand you?" Tony shook his head with a slight frown. His eyebrows were pinched together as he stared expectantly at Peter.

What the _fuck_ was happening? Peter didn't normally swear, but in a time like this staying family-friendly wasn't the top of his priorities. Wasn't Tony joking? Did he- did he really time travel? Peter felt his chest tighten again as he choked out his reply.

"I'm going to sound crazy, and I'm sorry but... what year is it?"

Tony put his head in his hands and sighed.

"It's 2007, kid. You on drugs or something?" Rude.

Wait- 2007? Peter spluttered in shock. That was why Tony looked younger, why he didn't have his arc reactor. _Why he didn't know who the hell Peter was_.

"What year did you think it was?" Tony raised an eyebrow, his gaze cold and mistrustful.

"I'm- Are there security cameras or listening devices in here?" Tony nodded. "Disable them, please Mister Stark. Trust me."

Tony shot him a look but started pressing buttons on his Starkphone before motioning with his hands for him to continue talking.

"I know that this will sound ridiculous, but please believe me. I - I'm sorry if you don't believe me but I just- I _need_ you to believe me."

"Tell me, kid. I'll- Shit, I'll trust you for now."

Peter took a long, deep breath.

"My name is Peter Parker, I'm sixteen years old and I'm from Queens. I'm- This is the crazy part, by the way... When I was fourteen, a radioactive spider bit me and I got- I mutated, I guess?" Tony looked surprised, his stare boring into Peter as if searching through his soul. "And I- I fight crime, and..." Peter trailed off.

"So your story is, you're a crime-fighting mutant?" Tony was glaring at him. Not good.

"I'm not done."

"Then continue."

Peter nodded slightly. "It's 2018, for me at least... And last year, you came to me and you told me you wanted me to help you fight Captain America because he was going to do something bad and you needed to form a team." He avoided looking at the other man, choosing to instead look down at his hands as he spoke. "You made me a suit with web shooters and we fought with him."

He glanced up at Tony who was hanging onto his every word. Peter took another deep breath before he continued rambling.

"And he had lots of powerful people with him, like..." Peter racked his memories. "Scarlet Witch, Bucky Barnes, Uhm... Hawkeye and Falcon. And there was this guy who had some kind of shrinking tech, he went really small and uh- well, he sort of punched me in the face for stealings Caps' shield. I think they called him Scott?"

"Say you are telling the truth- which I doubt you are, by the way." Tony was still leaned in, but his eyes were full of mistrust and disbelief was evident on his face. "Why were we fighting? And Captain America hasn't been seen since the forties."

"Well- I'm going to explain a lot right now. So get comfortable and uh- don't interrupt me?" Tony looked annoyed at that comment but shut his mouth.

"In 2011, Captain America was found to be frozen, and Nick Fury recruited him for this team called the Avengers. You, Captain America, The Hulk, Hawkeye and Black Widow - oh and Thor! Thor was there too. You fought Thor's evil brother, and he got a bunch of Aliens to invade New York but you threw a nuke into a wormhole and they all died but you nearly did too. And then later in 2015, you and Bruce Banner made this evil robot thingy? The robot guy wanted to make the world peaceful or something but he thought the best way to do it would just be to pick up a big city, drop it and kill the planet. And you and the Avengers team stopped him. Then later, in the fight between you and Captain America, you had a team and he had his team and we fought- it was really awesome, b-t-dubs."

Peter took a deep, deep inhale.

"And your team was you, me, your friend Rhodey, Vision - he's an A.I you made, he's really cool, - Black Widow and this Black Panther guy all fought Captain America's team but Black Widow changed sides at the end and helped Captain America and Mister Barnes escape. Then, in 2017 I sort of split a ship in half so you took my suit away but there was this really evil dude who was stealing stuff from you and the government so I had to stop him but I didn't have the suit you made me and I almost died, but I managed to stop him. Then you asked me to join the Avengers and I said no because I wanted to help out the little guy? And so I was on patrol like I normally am but then I just blacked out and I don't know why and I woke up in Central Park, half-naked and then you hit me with your car.

Peter exhaled heavily, looking up to meet Tony's eyes.

"You're fucking insane, kid."

 

 


	2. Devil Town

"You're fucking insane, kid."

Peter felt his heart skip a beat as his eyes flittered over Tony's face, trying to read his expression as his mind raced with panic. He didn't believe him, oh god. He was going to throw Peter out onto the street, and Peter would get killed or something. He didn't have his suit, he didn't know where to go. He's fucked. He's so fucked. Oh god, oh god. This is awful. He needs to leave. Get out. Run, hide, escape.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, Mister Stark. I don't- You don't, don't believe me. And I understand but please, please don't t-throw me out! I don't want to go out there!" Peter begged, his breaths shallow and quick as he tried to reach over to the older man. Tony swatted his hand away.

"Of course I don't believe you. But I'm not going to throw you out. You're a kid, a crazy one. I'm not gonna just leave you for the cops to find or something." Tony sighed, running a hand down his face and messing up his hair. "But even if you aren't making this up, there's no proof that you are even the person you say you are. And to be fair, you're not exactly in great shape right now to be doing anything.

Peters' heart soared as he thanked Tony over and over, clasping the other man's hand in his to show his gratefulness. He still didn't believe him, but he wasn't going to leave him.

He just had to figure out how to make Tony believe him.

//

Peter stayed in the room all day, with Tony sometimes coming in or out. At some point, he took a pint of blood from Peter for testing but he didn't come back after that. He could only guess what time it was based on the streams of sunlight coming through the gaps in the blinds, it was maybe noon by now or it could be early morning or the late afternoon. There weren't any clocks in the room, but if Peter strained his senses he could hear a soft clicking of a clock in another room changing gears. 

His whole body was aching and he had an annoying headache. He didn't have any plan of what to do, and all he wanted to do was sleep. He wondered how May was. Did she know where he was? She must be worried sick. He didn't have anything on him either, no phone or web-shooters. His wallet and keys were missing too. His hands shook violently when he tried to move them and his knees buckled every time he attempted to stand. But he needed to leave, he had to. Tony didn't believe him, May would be so scared, Ned would be wondering why he isn't at school. If Ned remembers him that is...

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the door swinging open to a very concerned Tony Stark. He was holding a piece of paper in his right hand and his left was shaking in anger, or maybe fear? It's hard to tell. He strode over to Peter and thrust the paper into his face.

"You're a mutant, aren't you?" It was a rhetorical question, of course. They both knew it. He was a mutant, even if the word made a pit in his stomach and a lump in his throat. Peter nodded solemnly. "So- So you weren't lying about that. You really do have 'spider powers' then?" Peter nodded again with a sad half-smile.

"I didn't lie about anything, Mister Stark."

Tony sighed deeply and put the paper down on the table next to Peters' bed. He sat on the chair across from his bed and folded his hands in his lap, looking up at Peter with an unreadable expression.

"You're- So. Aliens happened then, huh? Wow, Jesus." Tony mumbled under his breath, shaking his head. 

"You get used to it after a while." Peter joked with a weak smile.

And Tony smiled back.

**Author's Note:**

> me, an intellectual: hey you know what would be sick. if i start ANOTHER fanfiction because i'm bored even tho i have like three others that need updating !!! also i'm sorry if this is too wordy but i basically just ?? felt liek WIRITNG and im SUPER TIRED AND MISPELLING SIMPLE WORDS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! im sorry


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